


Fearless

by Windify



Series: The Katana Chronicles [15]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Canon-Typical Violence, Danger, Don't Have to Know Canon, Fluff, Gen, Good Older Sibling Leonardo (TMNT), Leonardo-centric (TMNT), Post-Episode: s03e13 The Lesson, Protective Leonardo (TMNT), Turtle Pile (TMNT), Turtle Tots (TMNT)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29837979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windify/pseuds/Windify
Summary: The turtle tots went topside against their father’s wish. Again. And again, the turte luck led them to another dangerous situation.//In other words: How Leonardo got the “fearless” nickname.
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & Raphael (TMNT)
Series: The Katana Chronicles [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099514
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43





	Fearless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fireworksinthenight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireworksinthenight/gifts).



> @fireworksinthenight wanted to know if the turtles went topside as children after the episode “The Lesson”. I used this prompt to write my take on how Leo got the “Fearless” nickname. Hope you don’t mind it’s kinda Leo-cetric. 
> 
> Anyway, this is set right after the episode The Lesson but you don’t have to see it to understand the plot. :D
> 
> And, oh look, another fic that went out of my hands with its length. But it was fun to write.

“So,” April wrapped her hands around a steaming mug, this time filled with tea instead of hot chocolate, “I take it that you didn’t try going topside after Splinter’s punishment? I mean, training for seventy eight hours straight is a memorable punishment.”

It was more a statement than a question but to her surprise, her turtle friends looked at each other and laughed. “Oh, if only,” Mikey sighed.

“No matter our training, we were – still are – quite incorrigible,” Don added, grinning at her sheepishly.

Raph chuckled. “What Don mean’s that we went out again like three weeks later.”

April nearly drowned on her tea. “Do you guys have a death wish, or what?”

“Something like that,” grumbled Leo, glaring at his brothers who were trying their best to look as guilty as possible. “I told them it was a bad idea, but did they listen? No, of course not.”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, Leo, it wasn’t that bad.”

Leo looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill his brothers or meditate to calm down and his expression made April laugh out loud.

“I mean… it could’ve been worse,” Don mused, much to Leonardo’s obvious dismay.

Raph clasped the leader’s shoulder. “And ya get your nickname from that trip, Fearless.”

“Really?” April asked, tilting her head to one side. “Now I’m curious. What happened?”

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Leo nearly growled, crossing his arms over his plastron. “My three little brothers decided that although Splinter was right with human’s world being dangerous, there were also good things. People, places, experiences. There are just some things you don’t want to only watch on TV, things you want to experience personally.” He sighed, shaking his head. “We all were too impatient, we wanted to know and see and we didn’t realize we were too young for some things.”

“We got into some really dangerous trouble that night,” Raph mumbled. “But enough of this. Ya want to tell the story or should I do that, Leo?”

Leonardo rolled his eyes, quickly deciding that it would be better if he started talking. “So let me explain, April, why Raphie calls me ‘fearless’. It all started when Master Splinter once again told us that we should train more…”

~~~

“No.”

“Come on, Leo, you want to go topside just as much as we!”

“We were topside already,” the eldest turtle said. “And you all know how it ended. I don’t want to make Master Splinter angry again. He said we should train more and that we were lucky nothing happened to us.”

The red-banded turtle threw his hands: “But how we’re supposed to get better when we can’t explore?”

Don shifted his weight nervously. “Raph’s righ, Leo. We know the sewers already but if we want to get better, shouldn’t we change the settings?”

“Dad’s always telling us that ninjas have to adapt!” added Mikey cheerily. “And how can we do that when we don’t know anything other than the sewers?”

He stared at his younger brothers who were staring back, eagerness and hope evident in their faces, eyes twinkling. And Leonardo knew they were right – he too wanted to explore the outside world, wanted to see new things, wanted to see the wonders he had only heard or read about. But Master Splinter’s words were still stuck in his head and he knew that, as the eldest, it was up to him to look after his brothers, to assure they were safe.

But he also knew that there was no stopping his brothers. That was why they were still waiting for his decision. They will go topside with or without him, the only important thing was whether only three turtles would get into trouble, or all four.

Leonardo sighed. Although he didn’t want to be punished again, he also didn’t want for his brothers to be alone. They were team, family, they worked together, they stayed together no matter what. They were the _strongest_ together. And no matter how much Leo loved Master Splinter, no matter how much he needed his assurance and guidance, he would rather be a better brother than a son. If it meant disobeying their father, then so be it.

“Sensei’s going to kill me,” Leo mumbled in defeat but his sour mood was quickly chased away when his brothers cheered and hugged him.

“Knew you’d agree,” Raph grinned at him confidently.

“Well I can’t let you wandering around on your own,” he said, smirking at the annoyed looks they shot at him. “Alright, but if we go out, you’ll listen to me, okay?”

Raph tilted his head to one side. “Ya know that you being the oldest doesn’t mean you’re in charge, right?” When the blue-masked turtle looked at him, gesturing towards their father’s room, he immediately waved his hands vividly: “Just saying. I have nothing against it.”

Which was unsurprising, considering that if they get into trouble, it’ll be Leonardo as the eldest who will have to explain to Splinter what were they doing out of their _safe_ home. _Again._

“We can’t use the same exit as before,” Don mused. “We’d get caught for sure if we did.”

“I know,” Leo nodded, going through the map of tunnels in his mind. “Okay, I think I know where we should go outside. The manhole cover there is already loosened so it won’t be that much trouble.”

“How do you know that?” Mikey asked curiously.

“I’m ninja,” he chuckled. There was no way he’d admit he tried going topside without them before.

Raph huffed. “So are we but we don’t know this.”

“Maybe you should spend more time salvaging with dad, then,” Leo answered. “But this isn’t important. We’ll go topside tomorrow evening, alright?” They had better chance at sneaking out with Sensei meditating.

His three brothers looked at each other, silently considering the plan. Then they nodded, trusting Leo that he wouldn’t betray them by telling Splinter. “Fine,” Don said finally and when Mikey yawned, the three older turtles chuckled.

“Then let’s go to the bed for tonight,” Leo ordered, switching the light in their room. “More sleep means more energy tomorrow, as Master Splinter says.”

~~~

April shook his head when Leo paused in his story-telling. “I can’t believe you actually agreed to this.”

“We’re brothers,” Don reminded her gently. “We stick together.”

“Especially for troubles like this,” added Mikey.

Raph nodded. “And although Splinter Junior can be too prissy –”

“Hey!”

“– you’d be surprised how wild he can be _other times_.”

The woman laughed, especially when she saw how Mikey and Don patted the eldest, both also grinning from ear to ear. “Alright,” she said once she calmed down enough to talk, “so what happened next? I get it that Splinter really didn’t catch you sneaking out?”

“He didn’t,” comfirmed Leo. “Training that day was surprisingly easy and we were able to sneak out of our home…”

~~~

“Are you sure ya know where we’re going, Leo?” Raph asked uncertainly. “Feels like we’re going in circles.”

“I can assure you that we aren’t,” Don muttered.

“Don’t you trust me, Raphael?”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “We trust you, Leo, we just wanna get out before we’ll have to come back home.”

He was about to answer when Donatello frowned. “Wait a sec. This seems familiar… Leo, is this the exit?”

The blue-masked turtle looked at the ladder Donnie was pointing at and nodded affirmatively. They all rushed to the ladder and Leonardo immediately jumped on it but hadn’t started climbing yet. “I’ll go first,” he said. Just in case. “Raph, you’re right behind me, you’ll help me lift the manhole cover.”

“Stop talking and move your shell aready, Leo!” the red-banded turtle shouted, already a little annoyed with his brother’s cautiousness. They weren’t even out of the sewers.

Puffing, Leonardo did as he was told. With the help from Raphael they were able to lift the manhole cover, and all four turtles quickly emerged from the sewers. They were in yet another alley, hidden in the darkness of the night, far enough from the streetlights. Silently, Leonardo closed the manhole, the quiet clink startling the others.

“I don’t remember the city being this dark,” Mikey whispered barely audible.

“We’ve only been outside during the day, that’s why,” Don told him just as quietly. “Don’t worry, Mikey, everything’s alright.”

“We can go back if ya want,” Raph suggested, even though he didn’t look really happy about that.

But Mikey quickly shook his head. “No, I wanna stay.”

“Alright,” Leo nodded once he was sure his brother meant it. “Let’s go to the rooftops, it’s safer. And we can watch the city from above.”

They didn’t protest, although Leonardo was partly convinced it was because they didn’t want to stay in the creepy, dark alley. In complete silence they climbed the escape stairs on the side of some building, their training making them unhearable. Maybe they couldn’t teach, but they still could do ninjutsu. Their father taught them how to blend with their surrounding even before he started to teach them how to fight and defend themselves.

Soon, they were on the high rooftop and when they finally stood still for a few seconds just to look around, they all froze.

The city below was huge, engrossed in the night and silence. The scene was far from one of those amazing, lit and busy pictures of New York, quite the contrary; the dark and peace were deafening and nearly scary. Yet it was one of the most incredible and breathtaking views Leo had ever seen. His heart was drumming loudly in his chest, his breath quick.

No matter how scary the darkness was, there was also something comforting in it. Up here where no one could see them but they could see many, Leonardo felt so powerful and so small at the same time. They knew so many things about the city and its people – from the newspapers, from the stories, from the books and TV, yet the city knew nothing about them.

There on that rooftop, Leonardo finally understood what their Sensei meant when he was telling them that being ninja is more than knowing how to fight.

And he _liked it_.

“It’s amazing,” he breathed out, breaking the silence between them.

“It is,” Donatello agreeed instantly. “It’s a pity we can’t see the stars, though.”

Michelangelo shrugged. “It’s New York.”

Rolling his eyes, Raphael shoved the youngest turtle. “You say that only because people on TV say that. We haven’t seen the night sky till now.”

“Well as you can see, people in TV were right,” Mikey said, pointing at the sky full of quickly moving clouds covering the half-full moon.

“It’s because of light pollution,” Don informed them. “You see all the streetlights? There have to be millions of them all around the city.”

Mikey tilted his head to one side. “Why don’t they just switch them off? I’d rather see the stars.”

“Yeah, me too,” Raph mumbled, narrowing his eyes as he was trying to watch the moon. “Human’s are dumb.”

“They’re not,” Leo shook his head. “They just need the light to see where they’re going.”

“But why?” the youngest asked. “We lived in darkness for a long time. Still do, sometimes.”

Don instantly looked down on his feet. “Not my fault the wires keep burning down,” he muttered.

“No one says it’s your fault, Donatello,” the eldest assured him quickly, then turned to Michelangelo. “Humans just aren’t used to living in the darkness, you know? And, unlike us, they’re not ninjas. They would tripple over things all the time.”

Raph grinned. “Mikey does that too and he’s still a ninja.”

Leo glared at him. “Stop ruining my point, Raphael.”

“Hey!” Mikey protested and his three older brothers laughed when he crossed his arms over his plastron and lifted his head, looking away.

Raph hugged him from one side. “It’s a joke, Mikey. Come on.”

“You’re being mean.”

The other tots looked at each other helplessly, Don and Leo coming closer to hug Mikey, too. “I’m sorry, Mikey,” Leo said softly, “I meant it as a joke, I swear!”

The youngest still refused to look at them, making them worried that he was really mad at them, but then his shoulders shook slightly. “Gotcha!” Mikey giggled. “I know it was a joke.”

“Mikey!” Raph yelled angrily and Don and Leo only sighed when the red-masked turtle tackled Michelangelo to the ground and started tickling him as a punishment. Raph hated it when Mikey used his concern against him, so this was quite common. But when Mikey started laughing, begging his brother to let him go, the blue ninja was quick to shush them, separating them.

“Keep it down,” he hissed. “No one can hear us.”

Suddenly there was a muffled, distant crash and the three turtles instantly looked at Donatello, who was standing by the rooftop’s edge. But the genius shook his head, raising his hands: “That wasn’t me! It came from below. Look, something’s happening.”

That got their attention. Both Mikey and Raph stood up and as one the three turtles moved to stand next to their brother. “Be careful,” Leo whispered when they leaned over the ledge. The height nearly made his head spin but he took a deep breath to calm his racing heart just as Master Splinter taught him. He overcame the irrational fear, he couldn’t back up, not when they were topside.

The turtle tots pricked up their ears as they looked down. Their sharp eyes, used to the darkness, spotted three people swiftly walking through the alley. They were talking to each other, that much was obvious, but from their position on the rooftop the turtles couldn’t hear what they were saying.

The humans stopped before they could walk to the street and then split up, one of them staying there, only walking closer to one streetlight, while the other two returning from where they had came from.

“What’re they doing?” Raph mumbled.

“Maybe playing hide and seek?” Mikey suggested, frowning.

“They’re adults, Mikey,” Don pointed out.

The youngest looked at him: “And?”

Leonardo, who abandoned his position next to his brothers to follow the other two humans by the perimeter of the roof. “I don’t think they’re playing hide and seek.” He raised his voice slightly, calling his brothers to himself.

The two humans – men, Leonardo noted – picked up something hidden further in the alley. As they threw them over their shoulders, he realized the things were duffel bags. The men looked back, searching in the night if no one was following them, and then they started running away.

“This feels suspicious,” Donatello observed.

Mikey nodded. “It’s like in the shows on TV. You know, the ones with criminals.”

“We should follow them,” Raphael said, straightening up. “C’mon, let’s go. I know they’re about to do something bad!”

“No!” Leo shook his head, eyes wide. “This seems dangerous. Master Splinter wouldn’t want us to go after them.”

Raph glared at him, huffing. “He didn’t want us to go topside but here we are. Enough talking, they’re getting away!”

Don hesitated. “I don’t know, Raph…”

“We can train our ninja stealth, jut like Sensei wants!” the red-masked turtle urged, pointing at the men who were quickly moving away.

“We’re topside already, what’s the worse that can happen?” Mikey asked rhetorically.

“Many things,” Don muttered. “But fine, I’m in.”

“What?” the eldest yelped, staring at the purple ninja in disbelief. He felt betrayed, he thought his brilliant brother would agree with him. “We can’t! You promised you’ll listen!”

“Yeah but you want to ruin the fun,” Rap growled. “Don, Mikey, let’s go.”

As they turned to leave, Leonardo made a split-second decision. Although he was angry (and a little hurt at how quickly his brothers broke their promise), he didn’t want to let them go on their own. The surface was dangerous and if something happened, he’d never forgive himself if he wasn’t there with his brothers. “Wait! Alright, alright, we’ll go after them,” he said, defeated. “But we’ll use the rooftops, okay?”

“Fine,” Raph grinned, satisfied. “But let’s go already!”

When the turtles leaped in the air to jump on the next building’s rooftop, Leonardo groaned internally.

 _Master Splinter is going to kill me_ , he thought as they run after their targets. This smelled of deep, serious trouble.

~~~

April snorted, eyeing the three younger turtles as their squirmed under Leonardo’s hard glare, innocently grinning at their leader. She tried to mask her laugh by coughing. “I see not much changed from when you were younger.”

“Nah,” Don shook his head, “he does listen to Leo more, now.”

“They’re like this since forever,” Michelangelo shrugged. “Just like Leo’s overprotective since forever.”

“I’m not.”

“You are,” all three turtles said in unison.

Leo huffed. “I’m careful, that’s different. You ran into trouble too easily.”

“That’s cause we know ya have our backs, bro,” Raphael chuckled, clasping Leonardo’s forearm.

That calmed him and his heart warmed. Leo gave him one of his rare, sincere smiles. “I always will,” he assured them firmly. “Anyway, back to the story. Even as children, we were fast and nimble. That comes from living in the sewers, after all. Somehow, we were able to keep pace with the men and it didn’t take us long to realize they really are criminals…”

~~~

“This is really shady,” Donatello whispered. “Like, really. They’re in a warehouse. You know what that means, right?”

“Of course we do.” Raph grumbled when they climbed on the warehouse’s roof.

“The bad guys always have their lairs in warehouses,” Mikey said urgently. “We have to know what’re they doing. We can be superheroes!”

Leo sighed. “We’re ninjas, Mikey, not superheroes, and we should really _not_ interfere.”

“Technically, ninjas fight more than superheroes.” And Leonardo shot a glare at Donatello, who merely raised his hands: “I’m only saying the truth.”

The eldest suppressed the urge to yell at him. Don was supposed to be the smart one, he was supposed to know how much of a bad idea this whole thing is!

Raph walked closer to him. “There are bad guys down here, Leo. You’re the one who always tell us we should help and stop the bad things. Don’t be a chicken!”

“I’m not!” he exclaimed immediately, then quickly looked around to see if somebody heard him. Luckily, there was no movement, no yelling. Apart from the turtles and the men, the night was still deadly silent. “I’m not,” he repeated, this time keeping his voice down. “I merely don’t think this is a good idea.”

Raph crossed his arms over his plastron. “You think that everything I say is a bad idea.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t, Raphael.” He really didn’t. Raph’d had many wonderful ideas but he was sometimes too rash and reckless and so _stubborn_. It was driving Leo crazy.

“Would you two please stop arguing for a minute?” Don called, and when Leonardo looked at him, he saw that the two youngest moved to the glass-walled part in the middle of the rooftop, looking down to the warehouse. Both Leo and Raph shuffled closer and crouched down next to their brothers.

The warehouse was lit inside by some old, barely shining ceiling lighting. That was good – for some reason, people rarely looked up, and even if they did so, the turtles would be hidden by the light. But the light was bright enough for the turtles to see something down there.

Unsurprisingly, there were many boxes. Even from their position on the roof, Leonardo could see that many of them were covered in thick layers of dust. The boxes closer to the entrance were clean, maybe wiped off or even new. But the most interesting and probably also the most relevant was a pile of duffel bags and four men standing above them, vividly chatting.

“The two on the left are the ones we followed,” Leo whispered.

“Yeah, but what about the other two?” asked Raph.

“Accomplices,” Don answered matter-of-factly. “They brought some bags, too. You’d see it if you weren’t arguing.”

Mikey shifted, nearly crawling on the glass but his three brothers managed to snatch him back to them. He shot them an annoyed look. “The glass’s firm, guys.”

Don sighed, runnig his fingers over the window. “Let’s not risk that.”

“I just wante –”

“Shh!” Raph interrupted him. “Something’s happening.”

One man raised his voice, evidently silencing the other three. He lifted his hand and they saw he was holding something shiny. Shiver ran down Leo’s spine when he realized it was a gun only moments before he pointed it in the direction of the three men.

The turtles stilled, frozen to the spot. They weren’t even breathing, waiting what will happen next. But to Leonardo’s enormous relief, the gunman hung the weapon, motioning for the three to move. They did so without another word and all of them left the warehouse, turning off the lights.

Leonardo let out a deep exhale. He didn’t manage to do nothing more before one of the window’s tables opened. He did managed to catch Mikey’s arm before he jumped down, though. “What’re you doing?!”

“Exploring, duh. I wanna know what’s inside the bags.”

“The men are gone, no one’ll see us,” Don prompted.

The blue ninja let go of his brother to hide his face in his hands, groaning slightly. Telling them that Master Splinter wouldn’t advise this would be useless. And, alright, he also wanted to know what was this whole thing about, but he also knew that curiosity could be deadly.

His brothers used his distraction to slip through the glass, landing on the boxes with a silent thud. He immediately followed them because of both concern and desire for knowledge. They climbed down the wooden containers, sneaking towards the pile.

They parted, each one of them picking out one bag and slowly, they started opening them. A salvo of excited “whoa” echoed through the big warehouse. “Guns?” Leo tilted his head on one side, grimacing at the bag under his hands and its content. He didn’t like guns.

“I’ve got jewelry,” Mikey announced, picking up some shiny necklace.

“Yeah, me too,” said Don as he examined the shiny objects.

“I’ve got…” Raph hesitated which made his brothers look up to see him holding some piece of technology. “Donnie, what’s this?”

The purple-masked turtle stared at it for a second before he hurried to Raphael and snatched the thing from his hand. “It’s a motherboard!” he exclaimed happily. “It’s used in computers and such. But I haven’t seen one this good yet… I think it might be new.” He shoved his brother aside and quickly rummaged through the duffel. “There’re cameras and computer parts and oh my shell, am I in heaven? Leo, we have to take this home. Please, Leo, I need this!”

And there he was, holding the eldest’s shoulders and shaking him a little. “Please, Leo! Please, please, please! We can go home now but please, let me take this home!”

Leo crossed his arms over his chest as he stared into Don’s pleading eyes. He doubted that the items were fairly bought, meaning they had been stolen. But there was no way of saying if it was true, or from where did the men got all these things.

Before he could answer, they heard some muffled voices and the warehouse’s entrance roller slowly being rolled up.

“Hide!” Leo ordered and they all promptly vanished into the shadows.

“– ou stupid idiot,” one of the previous men hissed as he and another one stepped into the warehouse. They didn’t switch the light on but they had flashlights in their hands. “How the fuck can you forget keys to the van?”

“You were pointing a fucking gun at me, Matthew!” the second man snarled.

The first one, Matthew, glared at him. “Shut up and grab the keys, William.”

“Must’ve left it with the goods,” William mumbled, shambling to the pile. They he froze. “Hey Matt, we didn’t left the bags opened, right?”

Matthew who was standing by the door frowned and came closer. “Of course not.” He shone at the pile and his face hardened. “Someone’s here.”

You could knock Leonardo down with a feather at the exact moment. For a while it seemed that he completely forgot how to breath. From his hiding spot behind the boxes he could spot his younger brothers.

His heart stopped when both humans drew their guns, pointing them at the open space together with the flashlights. “Show yourself and maybe we’ll let you live,” Matthew called, sounding nearly bored.

Even if Leonardo was human, he wouldn’t believe him.

The men moved, shining with their flashlights. Leo watched, silent, as Don barely managed to move before the strip of light fell over his hiding spot. Using all the skills Leo had, he climbed the containers to get above the humans. 

Matthew cocked his gun. William copied him. The two clicks were loud as thunder in the silent warehouse, the sound nearly made him lose control. Nearly.

Mikey and Raph, though, they weren’t that lucky. As William moved his flashlight, the bright light revealed the two turtles. Paralyzed, eyes wide open in terror, unable to move.

And Leo _leaped_.

As the humans yelped, he landed on Matthews shoulders, hitting his crown so hard that the man instantly fell unconscious, dropping hard on the ground. The created stir was enough for William to look at his partner, only to be kicked in the chest and getting a finger sticked into his throat. William stumbled, both his balance and grip on the gun lost and he coughed, the blow winding him. He hit him in his chin to knock him out and jumped away before William hit the ground, too.

Leonardo knew they won’t stay like that for long. They needed to leave immediately. “The window. Go, go, go!” he half-shouted, half-hissed. His comnanding voice woke his brothers from the trance and they moved without hesitation, swiftly making their way to the ceiling, Donatello following them.

Hesitating, Leo shot a look towards the plain brown duffel bag the genius was so excited about. He groaned internally once again, then cursed himself for wanting to keep his brothers happy at any cost. He closed the bag and slung it over his shoulders. It was heavy but not as much as he expected so it wasn’t that much of a obstacle to climb with.

His brothers were waiting for him on the roof. Still scared and a little buffled, they said nothing. “Let’s go home,” Leonardo ordered. “Follow me.”

They did without hesitation. As they run to their manhole cover, Leo wasn’t sure he was completely perceiving. His body worked automatically, his training pushing him to go faster, digging the best out of him. Eventually, they reached their alley, sliding down into the sewers.

Master Splinter met them halway through their way home. “My sons!” he yelled, his voice more worried than angry. “My sons, what happened?”

And suddenly, all their walls were gone. They burst into tears and jumped at their father, muttering “I’m sorry” and “I don’t wanna go topside anymore” over and over while sobbing hysterically. It took Splinter nearly half an hour to calm them down enough to hear them out. His fur bristled and he hissed when they talked about the men and their guns, but he was quick to soothe them down again.

“I was – I was so scared and I couldn’t move,” Mikey hiccuped. “But – but then Leo jumped on him and it was – it was like…”

“T’was like he was completely fearless,” Raph finished with something like awe in his voice.

Don nodded rapidly. “He wasn’t even afraid. He saved us!”

That was a lie. He was afraid more than ever. He was scared half to death and the tears drying on his face were a proof. He was still shaking, still felt his heart beat faster than it was supposed to. “I just… used their distraction. We needed to… to get out.”

He didn’t do anything special. Saving them was the only think he could think of.

Sensing his distress, Splinter pulled him closer. “I’m proud of you, Leonardo,” he whispered. “And I’m so happy to see you all alive, my sons.”

“You’re not angry we went out?” Leo dared to ask.

“Oh, I am,” their father assured them, chuckling slightly. Then he hugged them firmly. “But right now, the only thing that matters is that you are alive and back with me. Let’s go home, my sons. The night has been long.”

~~~

“Aww,” April cooed, “that’s so sweet! I thought Raph was the one who came up with the nickname but I didn’t think… this is cute.”

“No, it’s not,” Raph mumbled, bowing his head slightly. “But it’s true that Leo did saved our shells.”

“Looking back, I can see where all the overprotectiveness came from,” Don remarked.

Mikey snickered. “Yeah. He didn’t let us out of his sight for a month.”

“Can you blame me?” Leo sighed. “I swear, I have no idea how we’re all still alive.”

Raph patted his shoulder. “Turtle luck?” he suggested.

“That only works in our disadvantage,” the leader objected.

April leaned on her chair and took a last sip from her tea. “Well whatever it is, I’m glad to see you all here.”

They laughed easily. “Trust us, April,” Mikey hummed, “we’re glad to be here, too.”

~~~

But what April didn’t hear was the end of the story.

Later, when the turtles were safely tucked in ther beds and even Splinter went to sleep after singing them for a goodnight, despite his exhaustion and tiredness, Leonardo was still wide awake.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the fear in his brothers’ eyes. Couldn’t get the image of them being held at gunpoint. If he was a little slower, if the humans weren’t distracted by their appearance…

No. No, he couldn’t think like that. They made it. They were alive. They came home.

All of them.

He wasn’t fearless. He did what they would do if they weren’t frozen. He did what every eldest brother would do.

Leonardo flinched when he heard sudden steps. He soon recognized his brothers, all three of them, as the tiptoed and without any word crawled in his bed, snuggling closer to him. As they finally settled, Leo was aware they were lying in a way so all of them were connected. Mikey was sprawled over his plastron, Raph was hugging left side and Don his right.

No words were needed, no words were spoken.

Finally, feeling his brothers closeness, hearing their heartbeats and regular breathing as they slowly drifted to sleep, Leo felt himself relax.

He wasn’t fearless. He knew he could never be fearless, not with his brothers by his side.

But if _fearless_ was something his brothers needed and wanted him to be, then he will gladly become one. 

**Author's Note:**

> Would you look at that, evidently I like traumatizing the turtles. Who would think that...


End file.
